The present invention relates to a corral and head gate assembly for use in a livestock trailer and more particularly to such an assembly that is quickly and easily installed or removed.
Livestock corrals are commonplace on farms, ranches and feed lots. Corral assemblies typically include a number of fences, panels or gates all interconnected to form various chutes, runways, capture or loading facilities for livestock. Such corral assemblies are generally permanent structures and are often found built adjacent to barns or other buildings.
It is not uncommon, however, for farmers and ranchers to have widespread fields, pasture land or even feed lots where it is impractical or overly expensive to have a permanent corral system. It is also impractical and unduly expensive to install permanent corral and livestock catching facilities on leased or rented pasture land where the livestock owner might have to leave the permanent corral system as a fixture to the real state upon termination of the lease. Another significant drawback to permanent corral and livestock capturing facilities is that animals have to either be loaded in a transport vehicle and hauled to the facility or otherwise forcibly driven to the permanent structure.
Livestock trailers come in a variety of dimensions ranging in width from five to eight feet and lengths from approximately 12 to approximately 40 feet long. Livestock trailers are very convenient to load and transport animals from and to remote locations. It is common practice to load livestock into transport trailers in fields or pasture land by assembling a temporary corral external the trailer into which the animals are driven, then captured and then loaded on to the trailer. Assembling even a temporary corral for loading livestock into a trailer, however, is time consuming and labor intensive. Moreover, if a single, or very few, animals are to be loaded, it can take substantial time to capture the animal, place it in the trailer and then haul it to a remote location. What is desirable is a portable livestock trailer which includes an internal corral system which allows easy loading, sorting, inspection or working of livestock. However, because livestock trailers are also used for hauling animals for relocation, and any other variety of purposes, a livestock trailer with a dedicated internal corral assembly may be impractical and too expensive for sporadic use. Accordingly, a corral assembly with a livestock catch system which could be quickly installed into a livestock trailer for use and then removed therefrom when not in use would solve several of the identified problems. Such a system would allow a conventional livestock trailer to be retrofit with a corral and livestock catch assembly. Moreover, it would allow the livestock trailer to be used for hauling and transporting animals when the corral and catch assembly is not needed. Finally, such an assembly would allow the user to have an easily transportable and versatile livestock corral for use in remote locations and would preclude the need for multiple fixed corral system.